2. amps-preamps
  3. 126312-2194

Climbing the Preamp ladder

Bat vk-3, Manley Shrimp, and am currently using a Bat vk3-ix. you see I like tubes. what is a good step up? not just different. I use a Rogue stereo 90 tube amp with Aerial 8 speakers. I have a musical fidelity m1 transport and a wadia 121 DAC. I would like to stay under $2500.

thanks for everything in advance.

dpm2340
philipwu
214 posts
 
@dpm2340 
hi, if you can stretch your budget  slightly more at $2995, i highly recommend BackertLabs Rhumba preamp. i took the leap and i wasn't disappointed, now i'm going to upgrade to their flagship pre, it's that good. All the reviews are spot on, and it certainly outperform the highly respected Coincident Linestage which was in my list previously but not anymore. I'm sure you would be glad about the pre and hold onto it for years
Cheers!
dpm2340 OP
142 posts
 
keep me in mind when you want to sell your rhumba. what pres have you tried that the rhumba bettered? i listed mine.
philipwu
214 posts
 
@dpm2340 
hi,
Rhumba matches well with my genre of music. It is dynamic and revealing and have energy in the notes yet with touch of velvet smoothness. Its is not overly rich in tonality and don't have that weighty tone to portray piano well but i'm happy because i'm not the person driving at accuracy. i guess you have to figure out yourself by tube rolling to find that specific musical quality you prefer.
If you listen to solo; vocal; jazz or african music etc.. Rhumba may be better by other pre that cost less. It depends on your taste, but if PRaT and detail is your priority, i can assure you that Rhumba outperform any preamp out there costing over 8-9k
regards,
-phil
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